Chapter 540: Starting a Business (Part 2)

A little maid ran in: "Second Master, Second Master, there is a Master Fang who says he is your friend and wants to see you"

The surname is Fang, your friend?

He only knew Fang Ji, but Fang Ji was his sister-in-law's cousin. If he wanted to see him, he could just tell the gatekeeper and a servant would lead him in...

Xu Siyu couldn't help feeling a little confused, and seeing that Jiang'er was sleeping soundly, he said a few words to Ajin and went to the flower hall for receiving guests.

Seeing Fang Ji's familiar figure, he couldn't help but laugh: "Brother Fang, what happened? You said you were my friend, and I guessed for a long time..." As he said that, his smile froze on his face, "Brother Fang, what happened?"

Fang Ji looked solemn, and didn't smile at all when he saw Xu Siyu.

Seeing Xu Siyu asking him, he pulled Xu Siyu to the corner of the wall with a solemn look and whispered: "Liu Shaoyan was detained by Yin Tianfu's people."

Liu Shaoyan is one of the authors of this ten thousand word letter.

Xu Siyu was greatly shocked, but he also felt that this was reasonable.

"When did it happen?" he whispered, "Brother Fang came to see me, but what did you want me to do?"

Crisp and neat.

Fang Ji's eyes flashed with admiration, but he felt that now was not the time to talk about these things, so he calmed down and said, "I don't have any acquaintances in Yanjing. Can you help me find out what Liu Shaoyan's crime is? The victim and the evidence."

Xu Siyu said without hesitation, "Brother Fang is waiting for me here, why don't we go to Sanjing Hutong and sit down."

Fang Ji thought for a moment and said, "I'll wait for you at Chunxi Tower. I don't know what the situation is right now, so as not to alarm the elders and make them worry."

Seeing his nonchalant look, Xu Siyu thought of the friendship he had shown to him these days, and couldn't help but say, "Brother Fang, there is something I want to say, whether you like it or not."

Fang Ji was stunned.

In his impression, Xu Siyu was not only polite, but also careful with his words and actions... He didn't expect him to suddenly say such words.

"I'm not one of those petty people." He laughed, "If you have anything to say, please say it quickly so that you can do my work."

There was a hint of smile in Xu Siyu's eyes.

He likes dealing with people like Fang Ji.

"I think we should talk to the elders about this matter," he whispered, "Who hasn't done some stupid things in his life? I believe that if Shuntian Prefecture arrests Liu Shaoyan, there must be victims and evidence. Brother Fang should prepare for the rainy day."

Fang Ji was a smart man, his face changed when he heard that: "You mean..."

"Although the emperor wants to punish Li Zhong, punishing Li Zhong is one thing, and being forced to punish Li Zhong is another." Xu Siyu said meaningfully, "I remember that at the beginning of the founding of the country, the students who participated in the spring examination wrote a ten-thousand-word letter for the corruption of Li Rui, a founding hero and Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion. In the end, although Li Rui was beheaded, some of the students who participated in the proposal were banned from taking the imperial examination for life, and some were banned from taking the examination for three years..."

Before Xu Siyu could finish his words, Fang Ji was already sweating profusely.

He bowed deeply towards Xu Siyu.

"I am grateful for your kindness." Fang Ji interrupted Xu Siyu, "I will go to find Minister Liu now. As for Brother Shaoyan, I will ask you to help me. No matter what, we can't just leave it alone."

Xu Siyu said, "I will go to Yin Tianfu now. I will inform my elder brother as soon as I have any news." Then he left a message for Shiyi Niang, saying that he and Fang Ji were going out for dinner. Then he went out with Fang Ji.

Eleventh Lady did not take the news too seriously. Firstly, Xu Siyu was already so old, it was normal for him to have his own social life. Secondly, Fang Ji was a famous writer in Jiangnan, and being able to interact with him and make some friends through him would be of great benefit to Xu Siyu in the future.

She just called Wenzhu over and said, "If the Second Young Master is short of money, you can come to me and get some money."

Wen Zhu said hurriedly: "Second Young Master doesn't have much to spend on weekdays. He just spent too much money."

Shiyi Niang didn't say much to her and turned to look at Jiang'er.

Jian'er had just woken up and was sitting on the kang eating an apple. When he saw Shiyi Niang coming in, he opened his arms and wanted his mother to hold him.

Eleventh Lady held him in her arms, fed him an apple, and spoke to him as usual: "...When mother is not around, what have you been doing, brother? Did you take a nap today? Have you had dinner? These apples were given to you by your aunt, the current Empress Dowager. It is said that they are a tribute from Shandong. Your seventh aunt married to a place called Gaoqing in Shandong. When you grow up, go there to visit her..."

Jian Ge'er tilted his head and blinked his bright eyes at Shiyi Niang, as if wondering what his mother was talking about. Shiyi Niang sighed and touched Jian Ge'er's head in frustration: "You are almost one and a half years old, and I talk to you every day. Why don't you answer your mother?"

Xu Siyu traveled for two days before reporting back to Fang Ji.

"What did Minister Liu say?" He first asked about Fang Ji's situation.

"I don't know yet." Perhaps because the initial shock had passed, Fang Ji's expression was still relatively calm. He smiled and said, "Liu Shibo said that since the emperor has this intention, someone will inevitably be blamed. But he can't do too much. Let me prepare for the imperial examination with peace of mind, and he will help with other things." He added, "I have thought about it carefully these days. I don't mind not being able to participate in the spring examination. It's just that my mother is sad..." Speaking of this, his eyes dimmed, "And my uncle. He is a leisurely person. If my father hadn't offended the powerful in the court and resigned and returned home, why would he travel thousands of miles and suffer from the paperwork. He originally hoped that I would be on the list of successful candidates, so that my uncle could unload the burden of the family, return to Huzhou, study and farm, and live a life of 'picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the southern mountains'..."

Xu Siyu was surprised: "Brother, are you talking about my sister-in-law's father?"

Fang Ji nodded, with a guilty look on his face: "My uncle has always hoped that I could pass the imperial examination, but I was afraid of the constraints of the official career, so I have been playing around with life. My father and uncle have always turned a blind eye and let me do whatever I want... If I am not allowed to take the imperial examination for the rest of my life because of this, I don't know how disappointed my father and uncle will be... Although my second brother is young, he is not as educated as I was when I was young. I don't know if he can support the family when the time comes..." He murmured, his tone was a little sad, but he soon cheered up and smiled, "Forget it, let's not talk about these things. Since you are here, I believe there will be some progress in Brother Shaoyan's matter. What happened?"

Xu Siyu quickly calmed down and said, "Brother Liu was detained for the crime of 'taking a woman by force.' The victims and evidence are all here."

Fang Ji couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this: "Speaking of which, Brother Shaoyan only has this one flaw, but I didn't expect it to become someone else's handle."

Xu Siyu listened and felt secretly embarrassed.

Perhaps Minister Liu's efforts paid off, or perhaps the Emperor felt that catching those few people whose moral flaws could be found was enough, and on March 18, Fang Ji entered the venue smoothly, which made Xu Siyu and Xu Siqin, who came to see him off, breathe a sigh of relief.

The two went to Sanjing Hutong.

Fang found out, put her hands together and chanted "Amitabha", then went to the temple to burn incense for the Bodhisattva, and sighed: "I hope that big brother will live up to everyone's expectations this time. Then, Dad can go back to Huzhou. Shaanxi is really not a place for people to stay."

Xu Siqin was a little surprised.

Fang was shocked to find that she had spoken out of turn.

My father-in-law is also an official in Shaanxi, and he is very happy with his job.

As if to save her, she smiled and said, "My husband, you don't know that among us in Jiangnan, if our family has a little wealth, we will pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi, and then go out to serve as an official for a few years, which is considered to be an explanation to our ancestors."

This was the first time Xu Siqin had heard of this. He laughed and said, "But there are many people from Jiangnan in the court."

Fang just smiled and said nothing.

Xu Siyu thought of Fang's 20,000 taels dowry and said with a smile: "I'm afraid most of them are from poor families."

Fang thought this was a bit too absolute, and said with a smile: "Not entirely. It's just that people in my mother's family love to live a comfortable life, so it's like this." She also thought this was not a good topic, so she asked Xu Siyu: "I just hired a chef from Yanjing, and he makes very good braised pork elbows. Why don't you stay for lunch, second uncle?"

Xu Siyu thought that there was nothing to do when he returned, so he agreed with a smile.

He went out early and came back late, and spent three days in Sanjing Hutong. In the evening, he went to pick up Fang Ji to go out.

"Brother Fang, what are the questions today?" Xu Siyu took the test basket from Fang Ji.

Fang Ji's eyes were bright: "The Analects has two sentences, 'When a country has a good government, its words are trustworthy'; the Doctrine of the Mean has two sentences, 'If you plan ahead, you will succeed; if you don't plan ahead, you will fail'; Mencius has two sentences, 'Everyone has a heart that cannot bear to see others suffer'; the title of the poem is 'Looking southward at the remaining snow after the rain has stopped'."

"Oh," Xu Siyu was very interested, "What did Brother Fang say?"

Xu Siqin saw that Fang Ji looked tired, so he hurriedly said, "Let's talk about this later - go back and have dinner first, and then you can talk about it at night with candlelight."

The two smiled at each other and got on the car to Sanjing Hutong. As expected, they talked all night long by candlelight. Fang Ji knew that Xu Siyu was going to collect the test papers, so he volunteered to help him. Xu Siyu was worried about this matter, so he was naturally surprised to hear this. The two discussed for a long time and decided that Fang Ji would be responsible for the top three papers of the palace examination, and Xu Siyu would be responsible for the top ten papers of the joint examination. On the day of the announcement of the results, the two went there early. Although there were a lot of people, Xu Siyu still saw Fang Ji's name at a glance - he was ranked first, the position of the first place.

He called Fang Ji excitedly, but Fang Ji stood there with a dazed expression, as if he couldn't believe it. After a while, he happily put his arm around Xu Siyu's shoulders and said, "Let's go to Chunxi Tower to drink. Don't leave until you're drunk today. I'll treat you."

Xu Siyu was also very happy and nodded repeatedly.

Xu Siqin pulled the two people aside and said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. I remember that Fourth Aunt's fifth brother-in-law is also taking the imperial examination this year. His name is Qian Ming. Let's find out his name so that we can go and tell Fourth Aunt the good news."

Xu Siyu just remembered it now and couldn't help feeling a little ashamed.

Fang Ji was in high spirits at the moment, and everything seemed pleasing to him. He immediately told Xu Siyu, "You find these imperial edicts, I'll find the ones over here, and my brother-in-law will find the ones over there. Let's finish reading the edict quickly so we can go drink."

The two of them responded immediately, squeezed through the crowd, and finally found Qian Ming's name in a corner.

"Qian Ming from Yichun. Ranked 332nd." Fang Ji said loudly, "That should be the person you are talking about. Judging from the ranking, he is most likely a fellow Jinshi."

Xu Siqin and Fang Siyu looked at each other in bewilderment: "So, should we go and report the news?"

Fang Ji pulled the two people aside and said, "What good news do you have to tell the fellow Jinshi? Just pretend you don't know. Let's go have a drink."